St. Augustine, FL

Friday May 14, 2010

The night was cool, very comfortable and great for sleeping. We are plugged into shore power, so the refrigerator can be on except when we have air conditioning on. After a very leisurely breakfast, we thoroughly cleaned all the salt off the boat, and then filled up the water tanks. We ate a late lunch again at the Conch House restaurant in one of the tiki huts. During our lunch we were able to see the last Space Shuttle launch. We saw two burns. Cape Canaveral is south of St. Augustine about a day's sail away, but much closer by car!

Conch House Marina is on the Anastasia Island across the bridge from St. Augustine. The St. Augustine Lighthouse is on this island just down the road from the marina. It didn't look too far so we headed out walking to the lighthouse which we could see from the marina. It took a while, but not too long. There has been some kind of a lighthouse on Anastasia IS since the 1500's. First the Spanish controlled this, then the British and then America. they claim that this is the oldest lighthouse in the US, although several different buildings have been used. The latest was built in 1871 and restored in the 1990's. It is a nice museum and park. They had an excellent audio program that went with the entrance fee. We climbed the 219 steps to the top and had a panoramic view of the area. The picture of the marina is from up there. The lighthouse is black and white stripes with a red top. It has a first order Fresnel lens which is the biggest size. The lighthouse keepers houses were quite large ( for a lightkeeper's house)and very nice and they could hunt game and fish to feed their families. Usually several families lived there.

We walked back to the marina through the neighborhood. The marina is hosting a big fishing tournament this weekend. The fshermen ( and probably women) were in and enjoying "Happy Hour". There was quite a crowd at the bar up on pilings adjacent to the marina. Many fish had been caught and they were filleting them on the docks below the bar. Many fishermen were going home with fish steaks that evening. We stopped in for drink on the deck before returning to the boat. Since we had a late lunch we ate a light dinner on the boat. We also hooked up the cable TV to the boat and caught up on the news and weather.